Cambridge University is an institution that goes back more than 800 years
Sidney Sussex College is one of the 'new' colleges at Cambridge established in 1597 by Lady Francis Sidney, Countess of Sussex.
Oliver Cromwell was one of Sidney's early students, before he went on to become the Lord Protector
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Sidney Sussex College Chapel Court
The land where Sidney Sussex College was built was donated by Trinity College Cambridge, and had been a cemetary. When I was a student (1958 to 1961) there was an archeological dig in the college grounds to investigate this cemetary. It is reported that several remains were found. There is also the matter of Oliver Cromwell's head which is thought now to be in the custody of the College.
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Sidney Sussex College Hall Court
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Sidney Sussex College Cloister Court
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Sidney Sussex College Fellows Garden
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The lighter side of college life
Something like this stunt never happened while I was an undergraduate at Sidney Sussex ... however, there was one amazing stunt where a car was lifted onto the Senate House roof. Nobody owned up to doing this until a few years later when one of the college rugby teams (who were mainly engineering students) told the story of how they had done it.
I recall another incident when a bicycle suddently appeared at the top of one of the steeples of a local church. The authorities methodically put up a scaffolding in order to retrieve the bicycle ... and then just as the scaffold was nearing completion, the student climber returned and removed the bicycle!
There was a lighter side to student life ... but at the same time there was also a lot of good learning!
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A view of the Porter's Lodge, Sidney Sussex from Sidney Street.
This is a recent photograph ... but it could just as easily have been a photograph from 50 years ago. Bicycles in Cambridge seem to be for ever!
The windows of my room at college can just be seen beyond the Porter's Lodge in Hall Court ... it was 'A' staircase, the same staircase where Oliver Cromwell stayed when he was a student at the college in the early 1600s.
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